Determinantes de la representación musical

Resumo

The aim of this paper is to review the empirical data and theoretical proposals that try to establish the role of different features of musical patterns in determining the way in which music is perceived and recognized. We assume that music and language are similar in their structure and therefore, we organize the discussion of the different variables into those that refer to the combination of sounds (phonology), those that determine how musical pieces are segmented and organized (syntax) and those that provide meaning to the sequence of sounds (semantic). In this way, the melodic contour, the pitch intervals and the tonality are essential elements of the phonological representation of music; the rhythmic pattern and the presence of accents (both melodic and rhythmic) are essential in determining the syntactic structure of music. Finally, the activation of hierarchical representations generates musical expectations that are essential for generating of emotional responses to music. These responses constitute the meaning or semantics of the music.